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QUT and affiliates sued for $8m Kangaroo Point 17-May-2017 At 10:01:20 AM Martym

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CourierMail - Queensland University Technology sued for $8Mil - Abseiling/Belayer error leads to paraplegic.
Haven't found anything on Chocky about this, so I thought I'd post - you might get stuck by the paywall - so I added some excerpts:

A UNIVERSITY student who was left a paraplegic after falling from the top of Brisbane’s Kangaroo Point cliffs during an organised rock climb is suing for $8 million.

Isaac Schuurmans-Stekhoven, 22, was injured while climbing with other members of Queensland University of Technology Cliffhangers Rock Climbing Club on May 5, 2014.

Mr Schuurmans-Stekhoven was among a group of five club members, including the senior climber, who was the belayer for his climb, according to his Supreme Court claim. A belayer is a person who controls the safety rope for a climber.

Mr Schuurmans-Stekhoven, then a full-time university student, had made the 18m climb called Prickles at Kangaroo Point.

It is alleged upon reaching the anchors at the top of the climb, he began to “clean the climb’’, the belayer went off belay and Mr Schuurmans-Stekhoven was left unattended.

Mr Schuurmans-Stekhoven fell from the peak, suffering a severe cervical injury resulting in loss of function in his lower limbs and reduced power in his upper limbs, the claim says.
Mr Schuurmans-Stekhoven spent the next eight months in Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital.

Mr Schuurmans-Stekhoven’s parents, William and Viviana Schuurmans-Stekhoven, provide him with care and assistance, including cleaning, meal preparation, shopping, laundry, transport, showering and dressing, the claim says.

He will require medical and nursing care for the rest of his life.

Mr Schuurmans-Stekhoven, an undergraduate in software engineering, is continuing his studies, but has had to defer until second semester because of health.

The claim is against QUT, Queensland University of Technology Guild and the QUT Cliffhangers Rock Climbing Club.

He claims the club organised and controlled the rock climbing activity that resulted in his injury and was responsible for providing him with adequate roped climbing training.

It is also claimed the defendants were vicariously liable for the conduct of the belayer. The defendants are yet to respond to the claim.